Denver Direct: Forum on Hentzell Park Natural Area Land Swap – Saturday, February 23rd, 9-10:30 AM

The Denver School Board will commit (or decide not to commit) to using the land for a school AFTER the de-designated Hentzell Park Natural Area 9 acres and the 2.5 acres of parking lot are actually transferred to Denver Public Schools. Clearly the School Board should have committed to building a school on the land if they received it BEFORE the de-designation, and certainly BEFORE the land is turned over to DPS. Having the land de-designated and turned over to DPS before they commit makes the risk that the land will be flipped into commercial use seem unacceptably high. And what will happen to the 11.5 acres if DPS doesn’t build a school there and it is not converted to commercial use? The tragic loss of 9 acres of designated Denver natural area will have been for… what? Perhaps someone knows what the options are, but the citizens of Denver do not.